Politics and Religion: It's not just in America that you get to see this interplay between power and the gods

As the US presidential campaign primaries get underway, religion seems to loom ever so  large in the background. The party of the religious right, the Republicans, have given us a rare treat, throwing up scenes that swing from the bizarre to the comical. Renowned neurosurgeon, Ben Carson, a childhood hero of many Kenyans, has made all the wrong headlines, depending on which side of the religious aisle you squat. Not to be left behind are his Republican fellow hopefuls who are stumbling over each other to woo the party base - a base which some think is too dangerously and fanatically religious to be allowed anywhere near the White House.The bottomline is that to be  a good Republican candidate you must prove to be a man of God, which in the Republican universe could mean being an unhinged religious bigot who spouts off a far-right brand of Christianity. The mission  is to ‘reclaim America’ from the abyss of paganism and restore it's Judeo-Christian roots. Barack Obama and his Democratic Party are getting  slammed   for doing the unthinkable; leading America down the path to Sodom and Gomorrah.

It's not just in America that you get to see this interplay between power and the gods. I remember reading with bemusement the scenes that played out in the 19th century court of Kabaka as Muslims, Protestants and Catholics waged battle to win the Kabaka's  heart and become the religion of choice for Kabaka and his kingdom. To secure those ends, no trick was criminal, no ploy too base, from murder, to lies, to propaganda. The religions desperately tried to out-maneuver each other, plotting coup after countercoup, murder after kidnap, all in efforts to install their favorite in power and drive the losers out of town. Perhaps the most epic  was Kabaka Mwanga's who switched back and forth from Muslims and Christians in a desperate bid to cling to power. This was the king  famed for  keeping a harem of boys in his palace to whom  he would often resort to satiate his lusts. This was also the king whose name will live in infamy for killing 22 Catholics who finally refused his sexual demands following their conversion to Christianity. How this proud and arrogant Buganda Kingdom ended up being the plaything of foreigners, getting their kings and gods  picked  for them is an enigma that will give historians no easy sleep.

You'd think  that Europe, which gave of us so much of our modern civilisation, would be above all this shrill religious din, but no Sir. For centuries, nothing ever went on in that blessed continent  except wars of religion and then more. From burning poor little Joan of Arc, that gallant French lass, to burning witches in their hordes, Europe convulsed in religious stupidity and bigotry. They even exported some of that product abroad, some of it landing smack  at the Kabaka's court where the tussle continued, roping in the Kabaka and his officials. Finally in one mighty swing, the continent finished by giving us two world wars, World War I, and ll, which curiously ended up having very little religious content. So all that religion of bygone days was just a ruse? Today Europe enjoys the distinction of being the least religious people on earth, deaf to all cries of hell and brimstone. Even their cousins in America who still brim with some religious fervor, look on, stunned. In a historic episode when Europe was drawing up its EU Constitution, Angela Merkel pleaded for a law to give Europe a soul, only to be stopped cold by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary, who said bluntly, "We don't do god."

All this must come with alarm to many Kenyans, whose populace, not least its leadership, wave an admonishing finger at such creeping godlessness. With leaders given to chanting "Bwana asifiwe" at the least prompting and the gay showdown in Nairobi  with Obama where Uhuru sought to affirm "Christian and African values, "  not to mention a slew of prayer rallies across the country to curse Bensouda, it seems religion and power are  here to stay in a tight embrace.